English Dub Review: Attack on Titan “Friends”

So, no one told you life was gonna be this way… *CLAP CLAP CLAP CLAP*

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

As the rest of humanity prepares for Historia’s new regime, a dying Kenny remembers the first time he met Uri and Rod Reiss. Originally, he’d originally been hired by someone on Uri’s council to kill Uri, but was stopped by his Titan powers. Uri also realized his Founding Titan abilities could not alter Kenny’s mind, meaning he was of the Ackermann clan. Kenny was spared by Uri in exchange for joining him. And with his newfound power and freedom, he decided to go visit his sister working at a brothel, but he only found her corpse. Beside her was her starving son, Levi. Kenny trained the kid to survive in the slums but left him as soon as he could take care of himself.

Observing how much reverence Uri managed to gather while preaching for peace was an oddity to Kenny, though he figured it’s because he held power. In their last talk, Uri muses over how they became friends and how maybe that means there’s hope for the rest of the world. He also let slip that his power could be passed onto Rod’s children, which Kenny took to think it could be passed onto anyone. After Uri was devoured by Frieda, Kenny could tell he lived on within her and began forming his own squad to plan on obtaining that power for himself. Maybe it was just to get stronger, or maybe it was to finally understand compassion like Uri, but he never got that chance.

He awakens to see Levi standing over him, and so reveals he stole some Titan Serum to try becoming a Titan himself. He’s worried he might turn out like Rod, all mangled and deformed, but at least he’ll be alive a little while longer…though staying alive just to be alive has never interested him. Everyone’s drunk on something, whether it’s power, peace, or booze, but Kenny’s drank his last drop. All he can tell Levi about the First King’s plan is that it’s probably why the Ackermann’s rebelled in the first place. And that he’s Levi’s uncle and wasn’t cut out to raise him. With the last of his strength, he hands him the serum and dies.

In the capital, Historia is crowned Queen, with her story inspiring the nation.

In Shiganshina, Reiner loses in a fight with the Beast Titan, settling the matter of rescuing Annie. They’ll now wait for Eren.

OUR TAKE

Oh my god, they killed Kenny.

Okay, now that that’s out of the way, this was a surprisingly neat epilogue to this whole arc. It’s almost a little hard to believe how much was set into motion just a few months ago but has now been resolved so completely, with this being the bow to wrap it up. Based on the title, I assumed this would be about Eren and friends reflecting on everything that’s happened, possibly with a budget-friendly recap, and celebrating that they’re all together now for good. I definitely did not expect it to be about filling in the blanks of Kenny’s messed up life, nor getting his weird take on the concept of friendship.

Though it did give us looks at portions of the lore that we’ve never seen before and likely never will again, such as actually meeting Uri Reiss and, by extension, the First King. It’s hard to say for sure whether that was him talking or the real Uri, but it’s easy to tell how he managed to gain followers on his own with such a calming presence that talks about wanting peace in the world. It’s a presence that was even calming enough for a killer like Kenny, whose fascination with wanting to become a halfway decent person even led him to become a dad-uncle briefly to Levi. Even though it ironically set in motion what would eventually be his downfall (not counting Historia’s actions). All he leaves in his wake now are Levi and that serum he gave him, which will probably come into play somewhere down the road.

And while they only had the last couple seconds of the episode, it was nice to check in with Reiner and Bertholdt ever so briefly. This is the first time we’ve seen them interact with the Beast Titan, so that confirms they’re in cahoots with each other, but Ymir is not among the group strangely enough. Regardless, it looks this new trio is waiting out in the ruins of Shiganshina for Eren, or “the coordinate” to arrive and kidnap him again, though I would hope he’s wise to kidnappings by now. But I don’t imagine we’ll be seeing how that all plays out in the next two episodes, so it’s goodbye again until next year. However, that begs the question of just what we’re left to do for the last two weeks of this half of the season, but this episode on its own gives me a feeling that it’ll be worth the watch and the wait. Plus, we can always read the manga if we want to know that bad.